Bush To Keep 9-11 Data Secret

Saudis: Disclosure Will Clear Kingdom Of Blame

July 30, 2003|By Mike Allen The Washington Post and Information from The New York Times was used to supplement this report

WASHINGTON — President Bush rejected a personal appeal from Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Tuesday to release a classified section of a congressional report that has fed accusations the kingdom aided the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal called it "an outrage to any sense of fairness" that the 28 blacked-out pages were causing Saudi Arabia to be "wrongfully and morbidly accused of complicity in the tragic terrorist attacks.

"This accusation is based on misguided speculation and is born of poorly disguised malicious intent," he said after a hastily arranged White House meeting.

Saud said his nation is being "indicted by insinuation" and cannot reply to wordless pages. "We have nothing to hide," he said. "We do not seek, nor do we need, to be shielded."

The formal request was in a letter from Crown Prince Abdullah, who has developed a bond with Bush.

Saud's stinging words in the White House driveway reflected a new season of tension with a country that Bush has consistently called an important ally in the war on terror and has fueled a new battle between the administration and legislators of both parties.

Contradicting accounts of legislators who have read the classified pages, Bush said they "would reveal sources and methods that will make it harder for us to win the war on terror."

Saud said he met with Bush for 40 minutes and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice for about 30 minutes. He said that Bush "made a strong case for not publishing" the classified section and that it was not just Saudi Arabia but "other elements" Bush was worried about. But the minister said that only the release of the classified pages could allow the kingdom to rebut its critics.

"Everyone is having a field day casting aspersions about Saudi Arabia," Saud told reporters outside the White House.

The classified section is part of a 900-page report on the terrorist attacks released last week by the joint Congressional Committee on Intelligence. The public sections of the report described possible Saudi government support for some of the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudis.

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., a presidential candidate who co-chaired the congressional inquiry, said he thinks Bush was continuing a "pattern of delay and excessive use of national security standards to deny the people the knowledge of their vulnerability."

Graham said the Bush administration "went beyond national security" to keep the chapter secret, The New York Times reported. "In my judgment, there is compelling evidence that a foreign government provided direct support through officials and agents of that government to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers."

Graham, who asserted that almost all the chapter could be released without damaging U.S. intelligence interests, said the Bush administration was trying to protect foreign governments, hide the lapses of American intelligence agencies and prevent the public from having a fuller account of the roles played by other countries.

Invoking the provisions of a seldom-used Senate resolution, Graham said that he asked the current Republican chairman and the top Democrat to start a process that permits the declassification of information if the Senate votes to release it -- even over the objections of the administration.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., co-chairman of the congressional inquiry, reiterated his view Tuesday that 90 to 95 percent of the classified pages could be released without jeopardizing national security. He said Sunday on NBC that they might be withheld because they "might be embarrassing to some international relations."

Bush announced his decision during a Rose Garden appearance two hours before his meeting with Saud. Bush said he had "no qualms at all" about rebuffing the request "because there's an ongoing investigation into the 9-11 attacks, and we don't want to compromise that investigation.

"If people are being investigated, it doesn't make sense for us to let them know who they are," he said.

The administration used Saud's White House visit to demand the chance to interrogate Omar Bayoumi, a Saudi graduate student who has been accused of helping two of the hijackers settle in San Diego and of paying part of their rent with money he received from a wealthy Saudi source. The congressional report said Bayoumi "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia."

Saud told reporters that Bayoumi is "at large" in Saudi Arabia, but that the United States is free to question him within the country. Saud said the request was made after his meeting with Bush, in a separate session with Rice.

Saudi officials said the United States had never asked for access to Bayoumi and that Saudi Arabia released him after he was questioned by U.S., British and Saudi officials.